Dedication: A big 3-9 to the proud, the few, the folks who took the time to press that review button and let me know that they read the story even if it was crap. So, enjoy this chapter. It's got gratuitous fan-service! ...or gratuitous cursing. One of the two.
Definition: uh... 3 = san and 9 = kyuu and if you say it together you understand, right?
Disclaimers: Still no characterization. Still not mine. And no strip go, either. ...Wait, come back...
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Ogata Seiji snored loudly. One might say, so loudly that it was a wonder the neighbors didn't complain. Of course, one might counter that the neighbors rightly knew who to be wary of, and had learned from former mistakes. Whatever the reason, no one took any notice when window-rattling snores began to rumble from the tiny apartment, and certainly no one admitted to seeing two young men sneak out the door. Though, if someone had seen them, they probably wouldn't have been very surprised.
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how about go? : the ogata fic-sation
by erin ellis
second match : know your chicken, or, never anger a touya
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There wasn't much Shindou Hikaru needed to be happy. A warm bath, a soft bed, the last few hours of his life erased from his memory... Just the simple things. But for the immediate present, he would settle for knowing--
"Shindou, just where are you going anyway?"
The bleached-blond shot a look at his taller companion, who was walking beside him all too not scarred for life. After strip go at Ogata's and its various follow-up activities whose existence he was trying hard to deny, after sneaking past the surprisingly light-sleeping drunken go player to escape, after walking and walking with no signs of getting closer to a public phone much less a train station, his tolerance for snippy remarks from Touya Akira was getting dangerously low. "Do you have a problem with the way I'm getting us to the station, Touya?" he said, clenching and unclenching his fists.
The teen's eyes widened in mock surprise. "Oh, is that what you were doing? I thought you were taking me out for a leisurely stroll. We've been walking for fifteen minutes, Shindou. Fifteen. There is virtually no place in downtown Tokyo where you can walk fifteen minutes and not find a train station. --I suppose," he amended, "unless you're a very special type of idiot. Why don't you just give in and ask me where to go?"
No. Even the most rational of people would find this too much to take. "Why don't you take your know-it-all attitude and stick it in your ear, asshat? I'm not asking you for anything other than to leave me the hell alone! I mean, holy fucking shit, tonight instead of sitting at home and watching my cartoons, I've been involved in the kind of things wet dreams are made of-- except instead of attractive people being involved, it was you and sketch-master Ogata, of all people!" Hikaru clutched at his head, looking searchingly to the heavens. "God, I had to... with you-- I-- you almost--" Here he cut off, beet red and desperately avoiding the piercing aqua gaze. "I-- I mean, I had to see Ogata without any pants," he finished eventually, quickly working back up to his previous level of righteous indignance. "That's an image I have to live with for the rest of my life, and there is a strong possibility I may never sleep again."
"You're overreacting, Shind--"
"Shut up!" he shouted over him, peripherally aware that he was probably right. "Just shut up! I am not overreacting, I am freaking the hell out like a normal person, and you should be too! Would it kill you to show some true emotion? Why in the holy hell won't you get off your high horse and quit treating this like it's your typical Wednesday night?!"
"It is my typical Wednesday n--" Touya's mouth snapped shut with an audible click. A brief hesitation -- or was it a breath? -- and the teen continued, voice assured. "I always play with Ogata-san, or another pro, at about this time."
"Yeah, but play with them like this?" Hikaru's challenging expression began to fade into shocked disbelief as Touya turned away, but did not deny his words. "Touya... What are you saying?"
"I'm saying that sometimes to win you have to use your assets. ...All of them. To be the best, you have to play the right games against the right people. I'm saying, sometimes you have to... help with scheduling." He started walking down the street.
A beat. "...You whore yourself to the go community?!"
"Of course not," Touya snapped, eyes flashing. "Only people who can advance my game. If it was just anyone, I'd be trapped with Ichikawa-san and Kitajima-san for the rest of my life. Besides--"
Hikaru was horrified. "So not only are you selling your body for money, you're doing it with nasty old guys?!"
"Not selling for money, just for go games-- Hey, it's not selling at all! Besides, it's not like we--"
"Ew!" he cried, pressing his hands to his ears. "So, tonight was just business as usual? Holy pederasty, Touya! So that's why you hang out with the old guys all the time? And here I thought you just didn't have any friends."
Touya became very silent at that, but Hikaru didn't notice, mind whirling. It was all too much... Goody-two-shoes Touya Akira selling himself for training, possibly every professional go player he knew involved in some sort of disturbing underaged sex scandal... Sai never prepared him for anything like this! "Geez, Touya! I can't believe you do this and your dad encourages it! And here I was thinking Touya Kouyo was a great man."
Then Hikaru was in some sort of headlock, pressed tight against Touya's chest. "My father has nothing to do with how I choose to spend my time, and how dare you imply otherwise. Don't you ever say anything bad about my father."
Now, Hikaru certainly wasn't any judo master, but he figured he'd watched enough wrestling matches to throw some pretty boy around. So he shifted his weight, throwing a knee into the space behind Touya's knee so it would buckle, and sending them both flying. Touya released him on impact with the ground, and Hikaru covered his body so he couldn't get away, straddling him and rearing back to punch that pretty face into a smear on the pavement. Beating the crap out of Touya really would help him to relieve stress, and the beginnings of a smile toyed at his lips.
A jumble of emotions flickered across Touya's face, ending with challenge. "You want a repeat performance of earlier?" he said, something more than mocking in his voice.
Against his will, heat flared across Hikaru's face.
"Or actually, maybe it should be more like this." Before Hikaru knew it, he was lying flat on his back, arms pinned above his head, seeing stars as Touya had been none-too-gentle while flopping them over (who knew the guy could move so fast?), the other lying close enough that dark hairs were trailing onto Hikaru's shoulders and he could feel the stamina ramen with extra garlic-breath warm and harsh against his face. "You didn't really dislike our games tonight, did you."
"Get-- off--" Hikaru grunted, voice doing odd things with his rival/greatest enemy not prone to wearing white suits piled atop him in a very Not Touya Akira-like fashion.
"I'd rather you didn't; these are new pants." He did not just hear that. He did not just say that. Touya was supposed to understand such a pun even less than he was supposed to make one. On the other hand, Hikaru's anger had a chance to return, which made it a lot easier to think-- or at least, to react.
He swore, flipping back on top and making sure to slam at least twice as hard as Touya had. Touya continued not to look flustered, rather managing a solid if pained smirk. "Is this how you like it?" Touya taunted. "Didn't enjoy Ogata-san because you didn't have the chance to be the one in charge? If you'd asked, you might have been able to work something out."
By now, Hikaru's grip on Touya's arm was definitely going to leave marks. "Fuck you," he growled.
The prone teen shook his head proudly, sneer prominent on his face. "You've already had your chance, and I don't give seconds. I hope you enjoyed tonight, because I will never show myself to you again."
"I've already seen more of you than I'd ever wanted!" Hikaru cried, feeling a nerve in his cheek twitch. "You can continue to save yourself for your shota-con buddies, you morally defunct--"
*splash*
Then Hikaru came up sputtering like he'd been hit with the larger part of a bucket of ice water. Turning, he found that he had been. "Wha-- what the--"
A woman; small, bent, and possibly 5000 years old stood in the gate of the house behind them, clutching a bucket and wearing a nasty expression. "If you think I'm going to let some young hooligan force himself on some defenseless person outside of my house--"
"Hey!" Hikaru yelped. "I wasn't forcing myself on anyone!"
The old lady looked him up and down, eyes narrowed in blatant disbelief, then cast a long look at Touya, who to his credit blushed slightly. "Hnn... what you do in private is your own business, but you and your little girlfriend here are gonna have to find someplace new to go."
"Hey!" both teens chorused. Scrambling to their feet, they approached her, protesting; Hikaru about his status as a sexual predator, Touya graphically willing to demonstrate he was not a woman. Ignoring them both, the woman threw the rest of the icy water in their faces, then stalked back into her house.
"Old bitch," they cursed simultaneously. They exchanged a glance, then quickly turned away, reddening a bit. Hikaru shifted from foot to foot awkwardly; Touya wrung out his shirt and hair; and eventually, they resumed walking, silent except for the wet splorch of their shoes.
At length, Hikaru spoke again. "We're going the wrong way," he said sulkily. "We came from this direction."
The dark-haired teen's demeanor didn't seem to be daunted in the least by the fact he looked like a wet dog. "Actually, you led us in the completely wrong direction from the start. The station's right up there." He pointed down the street, and Hikaru was unhappy to see a cheerful green and white sign winking in the distance. --Not because he wanted to spend any more time with Touya, hell no, but it meant that he had been wrong, and worse, that Touya was right. His scowl deepened as Touya continued. "I save you from the depths of Tokyo, and this is the thanks I get?" he said, voice extra-patronizing.
Thanks, eh? "Gee, Touya," Hikaru chirped, "tonight's been so exciting! My first time playing strip go, first time having to fend off the advances of intoxicated pedophiles, first time hearing of professional go sex rings, first time being an accused rapist... You sure know how to show a guy a great time!"
"I'll make sure to bring you flowers next time, when we do Kuwabara's full body massage," he deadpanned.
The shorter teen blinked for a moment before catching that this was Touya's idea of a joke. Not funny. "I'll leave the sodomy to you," he said in the same tone.
"I told you," Touya said seriously, "no sodomy... Usually I'll let them cop a feel but they can't get past second base unless I'm getting a really good match out of it."
"Oh, that's so much better."
"Go to hell."
"I'm already there," Hikaru wailed, looking searchingly to the sky. "I don't know how you do it, Touya. Go around doing who knows what with who knows who, and never bat an eye. Me... hell, I don't think I can even pass a KFC for a long time."
"You don't like the Colonel?"
"I used to like the Colonel until I was assaulted by some freak who dresses like him. Ogata's creative use of chicken didn't help any."
Touya gave him a long, curious look, face almost softening. "You're surprisingly innocent, Shindou."
"Correction, I used to be. We can't all be good man-whores like you, Touya."
Whatever nigh-kind expression that Touya had worn vanished, twisted into one of pure rage and foul, evil thoughts... much like the expression Hikaru had been wearing for the past few hours. He opened his mouth, and Hikaru prepared himself for a stream of profanities. It would be amusing, perhaps, to actually see Touya really curse. Instead, he closed it again, wrenching his lips into some perverse little smile. "This is where we part, Shindou. I'll be seeing you."
"Sooner than I'd like," he muttered, not quite under his breath.
"Yes... exactly." A pachinko sign flickered on the horizon, and for a moment Touya's eyes glowed red. Then he whirled, stalking off like someone who hadn't spent the better part of the evening under the dominating heel of Ogata Seiji, though possibly that was because he, unlike Hikaru, had not been brought against his will. Also, he'd won the game of strip go. Bastard.
"Well," Hikaru said, posturing and raising a fist to the retreating figure. He would not let him have the last word. He shifted again and nodded some more. "All I know is... Mom's dramas had better've taped."
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Contrary to how such horrible days usually go, the rest of the evening -- and the next day, at that -- was incredibly normal. Mom's shows taped fine; she and Dad had even gone out on a date or something, there was just a note advising Hikaru to find his own dinner the next morning. (That was the downside to making your own money; your parents stopped buying you stuff.) So, nothing special; after waking up from a strange but promptly forgotten dream, he decided to call in sick to school and took himself a nice long, leisurely bath, followed that up with a nap, and played some video games.
Akari came over around five or six; he coughed a whole lot and did his best to convince her he'd gotten the flu (though flu season had come and gone some time ago) and he just needed some more rest. She brought him some dinner and orange juice and then thankfully left him alone. She really needed a boyfriend or a pet or something. Whatever. He finished his grueling day by watching his favorite Jump anime before going back to bed. Thus refreshed, he felt up to going back to the go institute tomorrow, and perhaps even school (though that would depend on whether or not Mom showed up in the morning, since school, as opposed to go, was not fun.)
He could do this. Hikaru knew he had the ability to put horrible, scarring things behind him. Really, after dealing with Sai's disappearance, everything else was cake, right?
Some part of him just knew that fate loved a challenge, and he'd just given it a good one. The rest of him was busy being asleep.
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Something was wrong.
Ogata Seiji woke half-undressed and smelling of stale alcohol and cigarettes. This wasn't necessarily a surprising or out of the ordinary occurrence, so that wasn't the problem.
It hurt his head to think, and while he was certain there had been other people in the room when he'd passed o-- er, fallen asleep, and while he was certain that they weren't here now, that also was fairly routine, and wasn't the problem either.
He had to piss like a racehorse. That at least was something he could easily deal with. Slowly staggering to his feet, Seiji took a few steps, wished he hadn't, then gritted his teeth and took a few more. After a few minutes he'd taken care of that most immediate need, and gotten started on brushing his teeth as well. The feeling that something was wrong had not left, however. No messages on the machine; the gas cock hadn't been left open; the front door wasn't locked, but that just meant that whoever had been here hadn't taken his keys, and that was a good thing. So then, what the hell was it?
Wobbling back to the bathroom, he rinsed his mouth and took a couple non-aspirin, then started a pot for coffee. He stretched, working on the crick in his neck, then scratched himself leisurely. Barely spilling any of the coffee, he took the pot and a mug and plopped down at the computer. And then Seiji realized exactly what was wrong.
"Oh, shit," he commented.
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Touya Akira knew he had wasted time that night; it would have been best if he had taken charge and led them straight home from the start. But... he'd wanted to toy with Shindou; he hadn't wanted to go home just yet; wanted to see what about him justified Ogata-san's interest in him. So far as Akira could tell, Shindou was an overrated and undermannered player, quite skilled at being annoying, but not much else. Even if he hadn't had any desires to actually play go, why should Ogata-san waste time with him at all? Surely there were others more skilled and just as easy to look at.
He realized in some contexts that last statement could be construed as a compliment, and Akira quickly banished the line of thought from his brain. Goodness, to compliment someone like Shindou? Such an... He broke into a coughing fit, hacking into the white mask he wore. This was why it didn't pay to waste time. Rolling around on the ground and being doused with water had given him a nasty cold, and he could only hope that Shindou was at least as sick. Idiot. And a self-righteous jerk, besides. Who was he to judge Akira's actions? It wasn't as if he was pure as the fallen snow or anything. Always dyeing his hair -- that couldn't possibly comply with school rules -- and... talking to himself, that wasn't normal, and... and eating obscene amounts of ramen. And so on. Anyway, he'd seen some of Shindou's friends... shady characters, the lot of them. Definitely not someone who should be high-handed about conduct. Not that Akira cared.
Besides, morals aside, honestly, if not being afraid to giggle and blush and force go games out of it when some old lechs copped a feel made you a man-whore (Akira personally considered it being a savvy businessman), then he guessed that was just what he was. Who cared, anyway? There was a higher purpose. Akira would find the Hand of God. And he would give anything he had to give, use everything he had to offer, to obtain it. And while he doubted his parents would approve, he was certain his father would understand. And that's why it didn't matter what Shindou thought. Nope, not at all.
...Which still didn't mean he wanted Shindou blabbing it all over the world. His eyes narrowed. It was possible that Akira or his family could be put in a bad position if word of his... actions got out. Shindou was dangerous; it wouldn't do for a rival to have any leverage against him. Since he couldn't be controlled physically, Akira would have to resort to... other measures of insuring the teen's silence.
Akira gave a low chuckle, pleased that despite being slightly muffled and his throat feeling quite sore, it was just as ominous as he'd hoped for. "Very soon, Shindou..."
If others in the go salon overheard any of his mumblings, they probably weren't very surprised.
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Friday dawned warm and sunny, and Hikaru liked warm and sunny, so that was good. After school he made his way to the go institute, and despite his last time being there leading directly to the 'incident,' as he'd decided to call it, he liked the go institute, so it was good. ...He hoped.
He walked into the building and stopped, looking at the elevator. He ought to press the button... instead he took a few deep, cleansing breaths, psyching himself up. No worries, right? He thought of Sai smiling at him, and for some reason it calmed him down, and that too was good.
Hikaru almost jumped when the doors opened behind him, relieved to find it a friendly face. He was still leery of Touya or Ogata trying to take him by surprise. "Hey Waya."
"Oh, Shindou!" The brown-haired teen waved and sauntered over. As he got closer, Waya creased his eyebrows, affecting a look of concern. "What's wrong? Another long night?" Something in his expression made Hikaru feel distinctly uncomfortable.
"No. Just not feeling too hot. Haven't been sleeping well." Nightmares of being stalked by the Colonel, he didn't add. Sure, post-Sai trauma was cake, but not quite Tastycake, if you caught his drift.
"Well, that is a problem," Waya replied, putting a hand on his shoulder and speaking in the entirely wrong tone of voice. He took a step forward and Hikaru took a step back and then they were noticeably alone, pressed against the wall in the secluded area by the currently unmanned gift shop and the public phone. His voice was low and growly and made a funny feeling in Hikaru's stomach. "Maybe it's an issue of what you're doing before bed. Maybe your choice of companions." Waya leaned forward, breath smelling lightly of curry.
Hikaru's voice was very small. "Why?"
The older boy's eyes narrowed, voice back to normal. "What do you mean, why? You're not saying you don't want this."
"Actually, I think I am." Hikaru gained steam. "Geez, Waya-- what are you doing?"
"I'm hitting on you, what do you think I'm doing?" he said plainly. "And it definitely is more than you deserve. What the hell, how could you possibly turn me down?"
Hikaru scoffed. "Now you sound like Ochi."
"Don't you dare compare me to that little freak," Waya warned, brandishing a fist. "Now, I'm definitely wondering where this instant pickiness came from. It's not like you weren't letting everyone else have a piece. I mean, Touya? I thought you were better than that," he said reproachfully.
Warning lights in Hikaru's brain began to flash. "What do you know about that?" he barked, face pulled tight.
He cocked an eyebrow. "I know your hands are skilled at more than just placing go stones. I know that for a scrawny runt, you look pretty good without a shirt. I know that you suck at strip go, among other things." Waya's tone changed, a little hurt. "I'm not trying to mess with you. I thought you liked that kind of thing, or it sure seemed that way when I saw it online. I thought we were friends, Shindou."
All the color drained from Hikaru's face. "You... saw it?"
"I was checking the net go homepage, and it was there. You never told me you were that flexible."
Now Hikaru looked positively ashen, or red, alternating. "On the net go page?"
"Yeah. Ogata has a permanent webcam there, didn't you know? Usually it's videos of old games you can watch for practice, but I think I learned more watching you for a few hours than the past year's worth of watching. I've been craving chicken for days."
All feeling left his legs. "Oh... my... god... damn." Hikaru felt it fair at this point in time to pass out.
tbc.
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+ I know, I know, I used the 'bleached' word. I am rightfully ashamed.
+ JR - Japan Railways. The train to get you around Tokyo. Or anywhere in Japan, actually. (except for my stationless town... dammit)
+ Stamina ramen = ramen with a raw egg. Might also have butter. I wouldn't choose it, but...
+ Japanese people wander around while brushing their teeth. I think it's kinda nasty, but maybe it's just because when I walk around brushing my teeth, I spill all over myself.
+ Japanese people also wear surgical masks when they have a cold. It's supposed to keep you from infecting others, but I don't see how cloth is keeping germs from coming to me. All I can see that it does is make you have to keep breathing in your own nasty germy spit all day, but whatever works.
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next:
Waya makes moves. Touya makes plans. Only one of them is even semi-successful. And Hikaru finds that it always gets worse before it gets better...
